Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Disappeared
Damian answered.
“Samuel?”
Static.
Then a man's voice.
“Don't go to the cemetery.”
Damian looked at Marcus.
“Where are you?”
“Doesn't matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“Not yet.”
“You took my son.”
“I saved your son.”
“You let me believe he didn't exist.”
“Because the people watching you needed to believe the same thing.”
Damian paced.
“You could have trusted me.”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“You were surrounded by the people doing it.”
“Victor?”
“Victor moved the paperwork.”
“Who gave the orders?”
Silence.
“Samuel.”
“Get the boys out of that house.”
Every person in the room became still.
“Why?”
“Because Victor didn't run away.”
Damian looked toward Marcus.
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted you looking outside.”
A faint sound came from downstairs.
Glass breaking.
Marcus pulled a weapon and moved toward the door.
I immediately gathered the babies.
“Safe room?” I asked.
Sofia pointed.
“Closet. Rear panel.”
We moved.
Damian stopped me.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“Take them.”
“I am.”
“All three.”
His eyes held mine.
“If something happens—”
“Nothing is happening.”
“You don't know that.”
“Neither do you.”
I pushed Matteo into his arms.
“You're their father. Act like one. Don't go looking for a fight when your sons need you alive.”
No one had probably spoken to Damian Moretti like that since childhood.
He stared at me.
Then handed Matteo back.
“Go.”
The safe room was hidden behind a cedar wardrobe.
Sofia entered first.
I followed with the babies.
The steel door closed.
For twelve minutes, we heard almost nothing.
Then gunshots.
Distant.
Two.
Then silence.
Sofia covered her mouth.
The babies began crying.
“Talk to them,” I said.
“What?”
“Anything.”
She knelt.
“Hi, boys.”
Her voice shook.
“Your aunt is apparently terrible at this.”
Leo stared at her.
“So I'm going to tell you about your father.”
I looked at her.
She smiled through tears.
“When Damian was nine, he found a pigeon with a broken wing. Our father told him to leave it.”
Outside, footsteps passed.
Sofia kept talking.
“He hid it in his bedroom for six weeks.”
Luca stopped crying.
“He called it Caesar because Damian was a ridiculous child.”
I smiled despite everything.
“Did it survive?”
“Oh yes. It destroyed Father's study.”
A knock sounded against the safe-room door.
Three times.
Pause.
Two times.
Sofia relaxed.
“Marcus.”
She opened it.
Damian entered.
Blood stained his sleeve.
I stood.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not mine.”
I didn't ask.
“Victor?”
“Gone.”
“Attackers?”
“Two men.”
“Who?”
“They won't tell us.”
The coldness in his voice reminded me who he was.
I stepped closer.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No what?”
“No doing whatever you're thinking.”
“You don't know what I'm thinking.”
“I've met angry men before.”
“Not like me.”
“That's exactly what worries me.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Matteo started crying.
Damian looked at him.
The anger left his face.
That was when I understood something important.
The babies weren't Damian's weakness.
They were his boundary.
Perhaps the first one he'd ever had.
Samuel called again.
This time we put him on speaker.
“I can get you somewhere safe.”
“Come here,” Damian said.
“No.”
“Samuel.”
“You still don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Samuel exhaled.
“The trust isn't just money.”
“What is it?”
“Moretti Holdings owns legitimate properties worth almost two billion dollars.”
Sofia nodded.
“We know.”
“You don't know about the voting clause.”
Damian looked at her.
She shook her head.
Samuel continued.
“When Damian's first biological child reached six months, a dormant clause activated. Damian would gain irreversible control over every holding.”
“Why six months?” I asked.
“His father wanted proof the bloodline continued.”
“Charming,” I muttered.
Samuel almost laughed.
“The twins turn six months in seven weeks.”
“So somebody has seven weeks to prevent the clause,” Damian said.
“Yes.”
“Victor?”
“He's working for someone.”
“Who?”
“I can prove it.”
“Then come home.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because they think I'm dead.”
Damian froze.
Samuel explained.
Five months earlier, someone had attempted to kill him.
He survived.
Natalia helped him disappear.
Then she went into labor unexpectedly.
Samuel learned that hospital records had been altered.
Three births became two.
Matteo was tagged for transfer.
Samuel intercepted him.
But Natalia remained inside.
“What happened to her?” Damian asked.
Samuel was silent.
“What happened to my wife?”
“She hemorrhaged.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Samuel's voice cracked.
“She was recovering.”
Damian gripped the table.
“Someone changed her medication.”
I closed my eyes.
As a nurse, I understood immediately.
A wrong drug.
A wrong dose.
A line altered in a chart.
Sometimes murder didn't look violent.
Sometimes it looked clinical.
“Who had access?” I asked.
“Her physician. Nursing staff. Hospital pharmacy.”
“And Victor?”
“He visited her.”
Damian went completely still.
“When?”
“Eleven minutes before she crashed.”
The room felt smaller.
“Proof?”
“That's what's in the cemetery.”
Marcus's key.
Natalia had hidden evidence inside a sealed compartment in the family mausoleum.
Damian wanted to leave immediately.
I stopped him.
“Samuel said don't go.”
“I heard him.”
“Then why are you putting on your jacket?”
“Because it's my wife.”
“And exactly what someone expects you to do.”
He stared.
I continued.
“Victor knows you. He knows what makes you angry. He knows what makes you reckless.”
“You think I'm reckless?”
“I met you eight hours ago and you've already threatened three people.”
Sofia murmured, “She's not wrong.”
Damian glared at her.
I took the key.
“We don't go where the enemy expects.”
“We?”
“Yes.”
“You're a nurse.”
“Exactly. Nobody in your world knows me.”
His expression changed.
“You're suggesting you retrieve it.”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I'm suggesting we make them think I did.”
Marcus smiled.
Damian didn't.
But the plan worked.
By afternoon, security footage showed me leaving the mansion carrying a medical bag.
Anyone watching would assume the babies needed supplies.
Inside the bag was nothing important.
Meanwhile Marcus sent another vehicle toward the cemetery.
Damian remained home.
And Sofia contacted a retired judge who had once handled the Moretti trust.
We waited.
At 4:20 p.m., someone followed my decoy vehicle.
At 4:38, another vehicle followed Marcus.
At 5:02, Damian's mansion appeared unwatched.
That was when Samuel arrived.
He entered through the kitchen wearing a baseball cap and beard.
Damian saw him.
Neither brother spoke.
Eighteen years disappeared.
Then Damian punched him.
Samuel staggered.
“Okay,” I said. “Apparently we're doing this.”
Damian grabbed his brother and hugged him.
Samuel froze.
Then hugged him back.
“You idiot,” Damian whispered.
“Good to see you too.”
Later, Samuel examined all three boys.
“They're perfect.”
Damian stood beside him.
“You're sure?”
“I delivered them.”
Damian looked at Matteo.
“All three?”
Samuel nodded.
“I put Leo in Natalia's arms first. Luca second. Matteo third.”
His voice broke.
“She kissed every one.”
Damian turned away.
Samuel gave him a moment.
Then produced a flash drive.
“This is everything.”
Medical records.
Original genetic tests.
Video.
Financial transfers.
Victor Hale's signature appeared repeatedly.
But Victor wasn't the final beneficiary.
The payments led through shell companies.
Eventually they reached one trust.
Sofia stared at the name.
“No.”
Damian looked at her.
“What?”
She turned the laptop.
Beneficiary:
EVELYN MORETTI.
Damian's mother.
Then a security alarm sounded.
The front gate opened.
A black sedan entered.
Sofia looked through the window.
May you like
Her face went white.
“She’s here.”
